Rescue fisherman aboard the French fishing boat, Ile de La Reunion, pulled 16-year-old Abby Sunderland from her capsized boat in the Indian Ocean. The fisherman heroes found her 2000 miles east of Madagascar, Africa, and and 2000 miles West of Perth, Australia. The weather calmed enough to allow a dinghy to make the transfer.

Australian Search and Rescue,Wild Eyes,Qanta airbusAbby’s dismasted 40-foot sloop, Wild Eyes, had been spotted 24 hours earlier by Australian Search and Rescue volunteers aboard a Qantas Airbus. The crew spoke with her briefly by VHF. The aircraft found her by homing in on the two emergency rescue beacons Abby had activated.

There has been no word yet about the fate of Abby’s boat, which still is adrift, but her quest to be the youngest solo circumnavigator is over. She made it about halfway around, and she became the youngest to round Cape Horn alone.

Abby set sail from Marina del Rey, near Los Angles, California, in January, 2010, in an Open 40 sloop designed by Scott Jutson for just the kind of seas and weather Abby would be likely to encounter, but had to put in at Cabo San Lucas when one of her automatic pilots failed. After completing repairs she left Cabo on Feb 7 to continue her journey, rounding both Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, and then sailing across the Indian Ocean before a series of storms finally put an end to her quest June 11.